Why didn’t Adam die the day he ate the forbidden fruit, as God
said he would?
PROBLEM: God said to Adam, “in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die” ( Gen.
2:17 ). But Adam lived to be 930 years old after he sinned ( Gen. 5:5 ).
SOLUTION: The word “day” ( yom ) does not always mean a 24-hour day. For “one day
(yom) is as a thousand years” ( Ps. 90:4 ; cf. 2 Peter 3:8 ). Adam did die within a
“day” in this sense. Further, Adam began to die physically the very moment he sinned
( Rom. 5:12 ), and he also died spiritually the exact instant he sinned ( Eph. 2:1 ). So
Adam died in several ways, any one of which would fulfill the pronouncement of
God (in Gen. 2:17 )